1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is generally directed to data storage, and more particularly to implementing a virtual storage pool.
2. The Relevant Technology
Virtualization technology abstracts the server underlying modern computer systems and isolates the virtual execution environment from server limitations and behaviors. As such, applications running in such virtualized environments are essentially portable and may be migrated from one virtualization environment to another with little effect on the execution of the application. One exception to this flexibility is the application's dependency on storage. The present practice of virtualization technology abstracts many aspects of the underlying server storage; however, two aspects, that of locality and capacity, are poorly abstracted or not at all.
In the first case, locality of storage in virtualized environments describes the situation where the storage available in the virtualized environment is limited to the storage available in the underlying server, unless some other access mechanism is provided, such as network-based storage. Network-based storage alleviates the locality problem in the virtualized environment and also satisfies the requirement of shared storage which is essential for the migration of applications from one virtualized environment to another virtualized environment. However, network-based storage is an additional component which is outside and independent of the virtualized environment or its underlying server.
In the second case, capacity of storage in virtualized environments is also a limiting factor in the virtualized environment. Capacity of storage is directly related to the storage available in the underlying server, unless some other access mechanism is provided, such as network-based storage. Again, network-based storage alleviates the capacity problem in the virtualized environment. However, network based storage is an additional component which is outside and independent of the virtualized environment or its underlying server.
Thus, locality and capacity of storage are limiting factors in the virtualized environment which cannot be alleviated or affected without the addition of other external storage mechanisms.